Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Education & Happiness - Are They Related?

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Having a college degree can certainly boost your chances of getting a lucrative job. But does it actually make your happier? Well a new study says that your level of happiness is not really affected by the number of degrees you earn. The study, published by the British Journal of Psychiatry, revealed that whether you studied a university programme or not, the prospects of your happiness and mental well-being remains more or less the same.

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 Does education make you happier?

The researchers of the University of Warwick in the UK analysed a number of socioeconomic factors and found that level of education has no relation with how happy they are in real life. A press release stated that the Warwick Medical School researchers were initially inspired to conduct the study by the prominent relation between mental illness and poor education. Hence, they planned to evaluate if the relation held true in the opposite way. However, they discovered that the chances of someone's happiness are equal across every level of academic accomplishment.

Lead author on the study, Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown, said “These findings are quite controversial because we expected to find the socioeconomic factors that are associated with mental illness would also be correlated with mental well being. So if low educational attainment was strongly associated with mental illness, high educational attainment would be strongly connected to mental well-being. But that is not the case.”

According to researchers happiness is regarded as a state of high mental well-being where individuals “feel good and function well.” This was applied to data available from Health Survey for England that included 17,030 people from 2010 to 2011. Professor Stewart-Brown believes that these finding point that socioeconomic factors are probably not applicable to programmes targeted at improving mental well-being.

Happiness comes from many things, not just education 
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However, according to psychiatrist Norman E. Rosenthal, MD, the finding of the new research was rather obvious. Although he was not involved in the study, he said “The basic finding that socioeconomic status is not correlated with happiness is consistent with all of the past literature. One thing we need to remember is that those people who are classified as mentally ill are only a small proportion of the population. And even among the lowest of the socioeconomic classes, they’re not mostly mentally ill — they’re mostly well.”

Rosenthal believes the study raises a number of important questions like why people from lower socioeconomic status are equally happy. He added “Study after study has shown that once you’ve got your basic needs covered, extra money does not correlate with more happiness. Happiness can be derived from many things, including family, friends, religion, having a sense of community, and a sense of purpose, which are all perfectly accessible to people of low socioeconomic status.”

According to Rosenthal the study was made rather confusing by the researchers by considering unhappiness, low socioeconomic status and mental illness. He said “Surely mental illness will be associated with unhappiness, and mental illness is correlated with lower socioeconomic status because those who are mentally ill are less able to make a living. But again, the fact is that’s only a small percent of the population.”

What do you think about the study? Does your college degree make you feel happier? Share your thoughts and experiences with us by commenting in the box below.

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Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Social Innovation Education - Create The Desired Social Impact.

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Social innovation has been gaining importance worldwide at a rapid pace and this the reason why more and more institutes need to provide proper training to aspiring learners and empower them to bring about the necessary changes in society.

Educating Social Innovators

Almost a decade, most universities barely offered any official support for aspiring social entrepreneurs and innovators. Although students could pursue courses on social issues, political science and policy; there was a lack of real-world skills training on social innovation, strategy, management and leadership. However the scenario is changing drastically now.

Derek Ellerman, co-founder of Polaris Project and graduate of Brown University, said “Today, a remarkable shift is underway. Brown and dozens of other universities across the country are part of a growing movement in higher education to make the social impact of their graduates a central institutional priority.” He added that “One of the main organizations pushing this trend is Ashoka U, which has created the Changemaker Campus Consortium to recognize and support universities at the leading edge of this change. ” Ellerman is geared up to launch his initiative SHIFT which will support the new breed of social innovators and entrepreneurs.

Source - bit.ly/1y4lWbW
 But What Do You Mean By A Social Innovator?

A social innovator is motivated to develop skills which you simply cannot outsource which are inherently human. These skills are highly important especially in the conceptual age. They promote the key values advocated by the United Nations: we are a single family who live in a fragile and interdependent world. The truth is we need new thinking to counter the challenges of the 21st Century. Hence social innovators are dedicated to bring about a positive change in the society and add meaning and value to their respective lives.

Need For Social Innovation Education

This is the reason why there is a strong need providing quality social innovation education so that we can develop the upcoming generation of innovators. Ellerman said “I had the opportunity this summer to serve on the selection panel for the newest members of the Changemaker Campus Consortium – Portland State University, Rollins College, Brigham Young University, and, yes, Brown – which joined the current 15 members, among them Duke, Arizona State, Middlebury, and The New School. Hearing about some of the groundbreaking new initiatives these colleges and universities are advancing was incredibly heartening. ”

This is certainly a great news not only for social entrepreneurs but also for the business sector in general. Companies will now have better access better trained and skilled graduates and re-trained mid-career executives and professionals. That will not only have real experience as managers, leaders and innovators, but they will also know how to effectively focus on the environmental and social impact of their efforts.


Moreover, this news will also be especially great for the new breed of social innovators who can now receive the required training and education that will enable them to reach their goals and create the desired social impact.


What are your thoughts on social innovation education? Feel free to share your opinions with us by commenting below.

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Thursday, 19 March 2015

Whatsapp: A Learning Tool That Amends The Education Path

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With the constant and rapid pace of technological advancement, the way we learn and teach is getting transformed and revolutionised in a drastic way. Now students can easily access multimedia content, online education, the internet and various social networking tools that can facilitate their learning and personal development. With growing importance on mobile learning, many EdTech experts now believe that its time to analyse the significance of the messaging tool Whatsapp in education.

In the past few years Whatsapp has become a crowd pleaser primarily because of its ease of use; and this is why many people think that the app will be great as a learning tool. Let's have a look...

Learning With Whatsapp – A Learning Revolution

There is no doubt that Whatsapp is a remarkable messaging tool that has innumerable users from around the globe. It allows you to easily connect with your relatives and friends, whether near or far. You can also connect with different groups from your school, college or community. The truth is Whatsapp has completely modified the way we communicate, interact and share information with our near ones.

But can we use Whatsapp as a useful learning tool? Yes, we can. Students can instantly share educational video and audio files in a simple yet affordable way. Moreover it can also help students in learning different languages like English. According to a 2013 study, it was found that 90.63 per cent of respondents among 95 students who use WhatsApp reported that the tool encouraged them to learn English.

 Creating A Learning Circle

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Want to create your own learning circle? Then let Whatsapp help you. Educators can now easily build learning groups using this app which can be used for sharing concise tutorials, quizzes, audio recording files of lectures and various educational videos. It can also allow the learners to connect easily with fellow students and teachers to discuss their problems. This will motivate learners to utilise their time more productively instead of simply chatting online.

Creating Discussion Forums

Using Whatsapp to create your own discussion forums is another great way of building an excellent learning environment. You can choose to post a quiz or a fun question and encourage your students to reply with the right answer. You may also allow the learners to ask questions and share their problems regarding learning a particular subject. It can be a great place for detailed discussions with simple interface and outstanding interactivity.

Create Broadcast Lists 
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You can easily create broadcast lists on Whatsapp and share files and documents easily with the members present on the list. This feature can be effectively used as a learning tool to help your students. Many educators and schools have already started using Whatsapp for a better learning experience.

This excellent messaging tool is now enabling students to share their opinions, seek solutions and help fellow students by creating an efficient learning environment. Learners can choose to start a discussion on any relevant topic at anytime and anywhere using this helpful tool which has become widely popular among most teen school-goers as well as college students.

How else can we use Whatsapp to improve learning? Do have your own ideas that you want to share? Then feel free to comment in the box below. We would love to hear from you.

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Monday, 2 March 2015

Be A Mindful Leader To Take Your Business To New Heights


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Since the global financial crisis of 2008, many business leaders are striving to become a better leader with regards to their unique personal values. The crisis pointed out the misconceptions of calculating success in terms of money which made many leaders uneasy as it challenged their authentic leadership. With the developing markets and rising revenues, numerous leaders in the corporate world ended up focussing more on their personal interests than the interests of the company. This affected the business, employees, shareholders and the customers. Hence I believe that today’s business leaders need to practice Mindful Leadership. Let’s find out more....

 Why Practice Mindful Leadership

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By becoming a mindful leader you will be able to use tools to manage and measure your life in the exact way you are living. Mindful leadership enables you to pay attention to the current moment, identify and understand your emotions and feelings and to keep them in control, particularly when you deal with extremely stressful scenarios. Being a mindful leader you will become better aware of your existence, recognise the depth of your action and how they affect others. This will help you to both participate and observe every moment and understand the repercussion of all your actions in the long term. As a result you will be able to lead a life where you can practice and hone your values.

Mindful Leadership Can Help You Professionally

Practicing mindful leadership helps you to be conscious and modify the manner in which you realise, react and interpret different occurrences. If you are a business leader or aspire to become one, then mindful leadership practices can empower you to not only advance your business, but to help all the parties involved. You will develop abilities to think from new perspectives, find out creative and effective solutions, form effectual daily schedules, product development and recruitment policies. Nowadays increasing numbers of business leaders and entrepreneurs are opting to learn mindful leadership practices as it has become an essential component for overall success and to improve their leadership skills.

How You Can Become A Mindful Leader 
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To develop mindful leadership skills, you will need to pursue a meaningful training programme that will boost your awareness and mindfulness. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur working on your start-up or a working professional, then studying a traditional college programme might not be the best option for you. What you need is a programme that will facilitate your training and learning and allow you to become the right of leader you want to be. If you ask me, studying an online business management programme will be the most beneficial for you. Why?

When you study an accredited Level 5 diploma or a Level 7 diploma online, you will be able to learn various management and leadership skills without compromising on your current full time job or your start-up. This will allow you to acquire the required leadership abilities and improve your focus, productivity, creativity and resilience. As a result you will be able to enhance your performance and lead your team and your company more effectively. If you run a start-up, then your online level 7 or level 5 diploma in management will allow you to better lead and manage your business and expand your operations.

Be The Leader You Want To Be

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In today’s business world, business leaders face a number of new challenges and need to steer their business through a rapidly evolving market. Mindful Leadership skills can help you face these challenges successfully and enable you to become a compassionate and focussed leader determined to boost business prospects.

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